Train-door system



TRAIN DOOR SYSTEM Filed Feb. 23, 1920' Patented Feb. 19, 1924 1- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE:

GEORGE E. OAKLEY, or ALBANY, NEW YORK, AssIGNOR'TO CONSOLIDATED Olin-HEAT- ING COMPANY, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, A. CORPORATION OF wEs'r' VIRGINIA.

TRAIN-DOOR SYSTEM.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE E. OAKLEY, a

citizen of the United States, residing at useful Improvements in Train-Door Sys-" terns, the following being a full, clear, and exact disclosure of the one form of my invention which I at present deem preferable.

For a detailed description of the present form of my invention, reference may be had to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein- I Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic View of my system circuits,

Fig. 2 is a detail.

My invention relates to the electrical operation of all or part of the doors in a train simultaneously from a single point. .It has been old for many years to interconnect the door-opening and the door-closing circuits throughout two or more cars of a train by means of train wires, so that by the closing of a single switch, current may be delivered to all of said circuits at once and all of the doors simultaneously opened or simultaneously closed. My invention relates to several features of improvement in such a system, the principal one being an arrangement by which a guard stationed at any intermediate point of the train along the station platform may close,-

in one separate group, those doors between his station and the head end of the train, and in another separate roup, those doors between his station and t e rear end of the train. Other features of my improvement. will be described and claimed'hereinaften,

The accompanying drawing shows in diagram, the circuitsfor one car and the end of an adjoining car of a train, it being .understood that these circuits areduplicated in each of the entire series of cars. Wires 5, 6, 7, and 8, are the train-wires extending through the train and connected from car to car by jumpers J Train-wires 5 and 8 are for the door-opening operation, the

doors on one side of the train being op erated by wire 5 and those on the opposite side by wire 8. Train-wires 6 and 7 are for the closing of the doors on the respec. tive sides of the train, it being remembered that ordinarily it is desired 'to open and close at one time only those doors which are Application filed. February 28, 1920. Serial No. 362,168.

on the side of the train adjacent to theplatform of the station at which the train may be stopping. From the door-openingtrain- Wires 5 and 8, branch wires 15 and 15 extend to the relay magnets 16 and 16 at L and L respectively and thence to ground.

All of the relay magnets 16 on the several cars Will therefore be energized whenever the train wire 8 is connected, as by means of a push-button switch, to one terminal of a battery whose opposite terminal is grounded and similarly all the relay mag nets 16 will be energized by the train- I wire 5 when it is connected to the battery aforesaid. Each relay 16, when energized, brings a contact plate 17 into engagement w1th three contacts, each of whichforms one terminal of a wire 18, and also into en-.

gagement. with a fourth contact that forms the terminal of battery buswir,e B which is the wire leading from the positive terminal of the battery (not shown) to those points of; the circuit where current isrequired for operation of the doors. Each of thethree wires18 goes by a wire, 19 to a door-opening, magnet 20 and thence to ground. It is not necessary here to show or describe the well-known door-engine and valves by which the magnet 20 causes the opening of the door since, they form no part of my present construction'and may be of any suitable kind. The door-opening arrangementsfor the opposite side of the car are identical with those just mentioned. For closing the doors relays22 and 22 E are provided at K and K for the respective sides. of the car, in branches from trainwires 6 and 7. The doorclosing magnets are 26v and2 6 similar to door-opening magnets 20 and 20 and supplied by wires 24; and 24 controlled, similarly to aforesaid wires 18 and 18 by therelay-rnagnets 22 and 22 In the circuitxof each :inagnet 26 or26 is aswitch25 or 25 opened by amagnet 27 or 27 as will be described later. I

In Fig.2, I have indicated by the ordi nary door-closing arm of a pneumatic door engine,.which, as is-customary, standsin a substantially horizontal position when the door is closed. It is usual to have this door arm operate a switch N to'close asighalcir cuit 4:, 5, when it closesthe door andwhen all the doors are closed. this signal circuit is completed andthe motorman at the head of the train thereby notified to proceed. In

' a red lamp and will indicate, so lon'g'asit is lighted that the door is not closed. In the diagram of Fig. 1, I have shown in diagram the said switch N and lamp M controlled thereby. I have also shown at each door two bars 28 andv29 with which two contact springs 30 and 81 make contact while the door is moving back and forth but break contact therewith when the door is fully closed, as is now well known in the art and described in McElroy Patent No. 1,287,717 of Dec. 17,1918. These two bars become connected electricallyby the action of a movable shoe or fender on the front edge of the door in the event of the door meeting an obstruction and thereby a circuit is closed from the battery bus-wire "13 to relay magnet 27 and door-opening magnet "2O. Thus in the event of the door encountering an obstruction it is automatically opened,

andthe relay magnet 27 acts at the same time to open the switch '25, heretofore mentioned, and thereby break the circuit leading *to door-closing magnet 26,so that'the aforesaid automatic openingofthe door can not be interferedwith by. the manual door-clospush-buttons. 'I have also shownateach door twopush buttons 33 and 34:. The pressing of button 33 connectsthe battery buswirefB to doonclosing magnet 26 and the pressing button 34 connects it to door-opening'magnet 20. Thereby the individual door corresponding to the buttons 33 and 34 may beopened or closed, it'being "remembered that the train line relay magnets '22 and 16 at K and L normally hold open'the wires leading to the door-opening and door-closingmagn'ets, so that the current admitted to "those magnets by buttons 33 and .34; does not go beyond them to work other doors in the train or even in the same car. These buttons 33 and 34 I purpose to locate on the outside of the car, where,being locked in the customary way against unauthorized operation, they may be used by the trainmen to enter the car when it is in the train yard, or

under other conditions when he desires to operate only a'singledoor instead ofall" the doors in the train.

I "I next call attention to the arrangement at the points H which I designate as guard-stations. Here the adjacent train-wires, e. g.

closing wire 7 and opening wire 8, are interrupted andthe severed ends brougl'it into thestation and connected to contacts which 1 are normally bridged by contact blocks 13 and14. VVh'en so bridged the electrical conf-tinnity of the wires is maintained. The retraction of contact block 14. opens trainwire 8. The retraction'of block 13 opens train-wire 7 and in'addition connects the wire S to the battery bus-wire B by means otbaclrstop contacts.- When the wire S is so connectechait enables push-button 9 to connect the battery to that part of trainwire 8 which extends to the right of guardstation Hsay towards the headend of the train,--and"push-button 12 to similarly connect the battery to that part of train-wire 8 which extends to the'left of guard-station ward end of thetrain and butto-nsl ll and 12 in control of those on the rear'end; Therefore, the guard need look toward. only the :end of the train at a-time and'by pressing the properbutton can open or close the correspondingdoors *whilethey are within his View. Sincethere is such a guard station adjacent to one'end of each car, the 'divi'siiiff to the nearest guard stat ion 'and afterunlocking it, can open first one group, and then the other group of doors along the *train; when the train is ready to-start, he will, in

like manner, close the doors. If he sees-the red lightMburning at any dooryhe will thereby know at once which door itis'that has failedto close. If no red light remains, it'means that all doors are closed, that the motorman has thereby received. his signal to go ahead. Ifdesired, a guard onthetrain maysperformthis duty.

It will beobserved that, while the train is moving, each train line is continuous, but when the train stops, it is divided into sections bythedoorman opening one ofthe bridging switches 13 or 14. Since said bridging switches are present on each car, as a part ot' the doormans apparatus, the sectioning points of a train-line can be selected by the doorman when the train comes to astop. He will operate'thoseswitches .13, '14;, which happento be 'nearest'to his pages, and of a character appropriate to the individual stops. Moreover, in making up a train the train-line is left continuous; there is no sectional train-line until the doorman opens one of the circuit breakers 13,14, as an incident of his selection of the particular stations at which he will stand when operating the doors, and an incident also of his control apparatus and of his working the doors ahead of him at different times from those behind him in the train.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The combination with door-operating circuits on two or more cars of a train, of a continuous train-line simultaneously controlling said circuits and divisible into sections, an operators control-apparatus at each operating point on the train, each apparatus comprising a normally closed circuit-breaker in the said train-line and means for opening said circuit breaker and operating separately the doors ahead of and behind the operators selected station.

2. The combination with door-operating circuits on two or more cars of a train, of a continuous train-line simultaneously con? trolling said circuits and divisible into sections, normally closed circuit breakers bridging between said sections during train movement, and means for opening said bridging switches when the train stops and for separately connecting the two adjoining sections to a source of electric current.

Signed at New York, county of New York, State of New York, this 26th day of February, 1920. I

GEORGE E. OAKLEY. 

